


The Box Of Ties

by Alicorn8210



Category: Original Work
Genre: Family Secrets, Gen, Siblings, scavenger hunt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24392125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alicorn8210/pseuds/Alicorn8210
Summary: Matthew and Kendall Steinbeck are two average siblings. However, one Friday afternoon, on their way back home from school, they find a mysterious box on their porch. In it is the beginning of something unexpected...





	The Box Of Ties

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story a while ago for a project. Hope you enjoy!

“Ruff!” Doug barked out as soon as he saw Matthew walk out of that cursed building. They both hated that place, but for totally different reasons. Doug hated it because it meant he wouldn’t get to see Matthew all day. But Matthew hated it because it was a place where, for 6 hours a day, he was expected to sit and listen to teachers go on about stuff he didn’t care about.

Well, actually, that was how his sister Kendall described it. He actually liked the place. It’s school, in case you couldn’t tell by now. But yeah, school was nice. It gave him something to do, and it was the only excuse he had to solve random proportions.

Kendall was there, holding Doug’s leash. Kendall was not a bad student. She was actually a pretty good one. She just HATED school, everything about it. Not one class seemed to interest her. Not even the fun stuff, like Art or Theatre Arts.

“Come on, let’s head home,” Kendall said as Matthew took the leash from her hand, thereby taking her responsibility of keeping up with Doug and his strength. Despite being a 20-pound pug, he could still make walking him a real workout.

The kids started to walk home. The sun was shining just as brightly as ever, but the weather was pretty mild. Matthew and Kendall were wearing very light jackets, just in case it got too cold, but so they wouldn’t be hot if it didn’t. The neighborhood was pretty quiet, since no one was home from work or school yet. A stray cat stared from the alleyway, but in more of a begging way than a hateful way. Everything was nice, and everything was normal. The world was a good place, where things just happened as expected.

“I’m surprised you’re not screaming about how it’s Friday and all is right in the world again,” Matthew hissed sarcastically.

“You shut up,” Kendall replied, punching Matthew in the shoulder. “I’m not a little kid. I’m 15. I deserve a little respect from you...and not just from you,”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “Let me guess. Your friends were starting drama again?”

“YES!” Kendall screamed so loud Doug jerked a little. “They treated me like some sort of maid. I don’t understand why they act like that! Is it so hard to be nice?!”

Matthew wondered what it was like to have "friends" who weren’t so friendly. All of his friends were so nice and trustworthy.

“Maybe get some new friends?” Matthew suggested.

“BE QUIET!” Kendall yelled, making Matthew nearly tumble off the sidewalk. They were right in front of their house. Their simple, quaint, quiet house. The dark red roof and the white siding were just the same as always. But there was something a little different.

“Huh?” Matthew asked. “What’s with that box? Did someone order something?”

“It doesn’t look like the Amazon box,” Kendall replied. “I think it’s a gift or something,”

Matthew got annoyed for some reason. “People don’t order things JUST from Amazon, Kendall!” he stated with a tone.

“Name one other place,” Kendall retorted smartly with her arms crossed.

“I don’t know-Etsy?!” Matthew answered impatiently. Honestly, sometimes Kendall could be so annoying.

He gazed at the label on Mr. Mysterious Box just sitting on the porch like a bored rock. The box seemed confused at the look Matthew was giving it.

“It says it’s for us,” Matthew thought out loud.

“Ugh, why do YOU always get packages?!” Kendall stated with an annoyed tone.

“No, it literally says, ‘For Matthew and Kendall’,” Matthew picked up the Box Of Mystery.

Kendall examined it for a second, a very critical look in her eyes. The look reminded Matthew of the look his teachers gave his stories.

“Well, open it, dummy!” Kendall shoved Little Box of Horrors into Matthew’s arms.

“OK-geez!” Matthew opened the box carefully. “There’s a card,”

“A card?” Kendall asked. “Like a birthday card?”

“No, like a notecard,”

Kendall backed away like Matthew had said there was a bomb in there. Or a tiger. Or a crocodile. Or literally any other super dangerous thing that could be in there.

“Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,” Kendall said quickly. “It’s Friday. F-R-I-D-A-Y. NO notecards! NO workbooks! NOTHING AT ALL RELATED TO SCHOOL!”

“WAIT!” Matthew shouted before Kendall zoomed into the house. “It’s a riddle!”

“Huh?”

“A riddle! It looks so cool!”

The riddle read:

_Welcome, boy, and welcome, girl_

_I hope you interrupt your quarrel_

_To gaze upon my penmanship_

_The words you speak upon your lip_

_A puzzle awaits the both of you_

_I deeply trust your brains of true_

_I will provide clues aplenty_

_And they shall not be elementary_

_Here is the first clue I provide_

_So set your rivalry aside:_

_The sun will shine, and make its mark_

_And you’ll hear the advice of a lonely lark_

Matthew finished reading with a deep breath. It took a lot out of him to read that.

“Uh, why were you reading that with a British accent?” Kendall asked, weirded out.

“Oh,” Matthew realized. “I don’t know. Anyways, what do you think this clue means?”

“Never mind THAT,” Kendall stated firmly. “What even IS it?!”

“Kendall, please,” Matthew said calmly. He put his hand on her shoulder. “I know you’re confused, but can you PLEASE just help? Pleeeeease?” He had a pleading look in his eyes.

“Ugh, FINE,” Kendall sighed. “So what does the stupid clue mean? It says...something about the sun and a lark,”

“I think what it means by ‘make its mark’ is that the sun is shining on something,” Matthew reasoned.

“And a lark is a bird, so a bird chirping,” Kendall added. “So…..? I got nothing,”

“WAIT!” Matthew realized. “Our bedroom! The sun shines through the window, and the birds chirp loudly!”

“I know THAT,” Kendall had a miserable look in her eyes, as if she had lost all hope for humanity. Which, if we’re being honest, wasn’t too far of a stretch. “For some reason, that stupid sun thinks it’s funny to shine its godforsaken rays in my face every morning EVER,”

Matthew simply smiled amusingly and entered the house, placing his backpack by the door and walking up the stairs. Kendall did the same, only with a bit more-how do you put it?-edge.

Matthew turned around halfway up the steps after hearing the backpack make a huge THUD. He gazed at Kendall, with her slumped shoulders, slouching posture, and general negative aura.

“Is something bothering you?” Matthew inquired.

Kendall’s eyebrows crumpled up like a used tissue. She grabbed Matthew’s shirt and gazed at him with a look that screamed "pissed off".

“WHAT DO YOU THINK, GENIUS?!” Kendall screamed at the top of her lungs.

“I…” Matthew’s mind raced, looking for an answer. But his words were neither clever nor sarcastic. They were genuine. “I’m sorry,”

Kendall let go. “What?”

“I shouldn’t have asked that. I’m really sorry. I won’t do it again,” Matthew gazed at the floor, his usual confident and energetic demeanor gone.

“No, it’s fine,” Kendall assured. “I’m just…unsure. How do we know we can trust a random note in a random package from a random person?”

Matthew thought about those words. “We don’t,” he finally decided on for an answer. “But we have to try and figure this out. For curiosity's sake,”

Kendall sighed. Her usual cold and sarcastic aura melted away like wax from a candle. What was left was a caring, intelligent, and curious person.

“OK,” Kendall said, a genuine smile on her face. “Let’s do this,”

Matthew smiled. He knew Kendall would be her old self in a little while, but he was going to cherish this moment for all it was worth. “Come on,”

The siblings continued to their room, where, as they predicted, there was a notecard laying on Matthew’s bed. A single ray of sunshine was illuminating the piece of paper.

“So my theory was correct!” Matthew exclaimed happily.

“Yeah, you guessed the thing would be here,” Kendall replied.

“No, I mean this seems like a scavenger hunt. I love scavenger hunts!”

“I never did. They seem kind of stupid,”

But Matthew simply ignored Kendall’s remark and read aloud the clue, like he had done with the previous card:

_Congratulations, you have found_

_The next clue which I have wound_

_I’m glad you two have made amends_

_So figure this one out as friends:_

_An empty soul lays underneath_

_But this beast has no claws or teeth_

_The only weapon it can hone_

_Is the surprise of an unearthly moan_

“OK, HOW does this guy know what we’re doing?!” Kendall exclaimed, clearly shocked and scared.

“I’m not sure,” Matthew replied. “It’s...definitely mysterious. And creepy,” Matthew felt a shiver go down his spine as he glanced out the window, fearing that someone would be staring back at him. But there was only a faint reflection of him and his sister. His heart rate slowed.

“I agree with you on that,” Kendall felt her heartbeat through her head. But then, while her panic slowly increased, she remembered something.

“‘Unearthly moan’...Wait, I think I know what the clue is referring to!”

“What? What is it?” Matthew wasn’t sure how Kendall had managed to figure it out so quickly. Wasn’t HE supposed to be the smart one?!

“The loose floorboard! It’s empty, and the clue said ‘empty soul’, and it makes an ‘unearthly moan’! Come on, Matthew!” Kendall hurried out of the room, her mind set on the staircase to the basement. 

Matthew was...shocked, to say the least. He had expected to figure out all the clues, while Kendall would just complain. Sure, they had had the whole makeup on the stairs, but he hadn’t expected it to make her a quick thinker all of a sudden.

 _No,_ he thought. _Don’t think those sorts of things. Be happy for your sister, and cheer her on,_ He felt the words of his parents echo throughout his head. It would be OK. He was happy for his sister.

But he was lying.

Down in the basement, the kids removed the loose floorboard with ease. It wasn’t even that heavy, despite it being a huge chunk of solid wood. Inside was yet another notecard, covered in sawdust and dirt. It smelled of fresh wood, despite these stairs being as old as the house itself-at least 30 years old.

“I’ll read this one-I don’t want you to do ALL of the reading for us!” Kendall said with a newfound confidence. Her slouching had turned into standing up straight, and she had some sort of positive energy surrounding her.

“Whatever,” Matthew muttered, clearly salty.

“Is...is something wrong, Matthew?”

Matthew stared at her, and, with a very deliberate choice of words, said, “What do YOU think, genius?”

Deja vu came into Kendall’s mind faster than you can say "meaningful echo". “Wait, are you mad at me just because I figured out a stupid clue?! Don’t be so salty, jerk! Just shut your mouth and let me do something for ONCE in my life!”

Matthew realized he had touched a nerve. Kendall had obviously been affected by Matthew’s genius status. She had been the top priority, but ever since he was born, all of a sudden, everyone seemed to forget about her and her worth.

“I’m sorry, Kendall,” Matthew sincerely apologized. “I guess I didn’t really think about it from your perspective. That’s always been a challenge for me,”

Kendall just couldn’t bring herself to stay mad at her little brother. Images of them swinging on the swing set at the local park, unwrapping gifts on Christmas morning, playing in the mud after the big thunderstorm years ago, mourning the loss of their goldfish Geronimo, they all flashed through her mind. He was her best friend, and even if they were constantly at each other’s throats, they were truly siblings.

“It’s fine, bro,” Kendall accepted with a smile. “I could NEVER stay mad at you!”

Matthew, with his heart whole again, handed her the notecard. Kendall cleared her throat and read:

_It truly warms my distant heart_

_That your differences did not keep you apart_

_Now I shall continue on_

_And give you two a little fun:_

_Flowing down to its demise_

_It faces the nose, but not the eyes_

_In a vessel meant to keep it still_

_While it’s destroyed by those looking ill_

Kendall once again felt her heart beating faster than it beat when she drank coffee. She didn’t drink it, but (and also BECAUSE) one time her dad made her try some when they were in a cafe. Well, let me just say the following…*ahem*...EXPERIENCE...was not quite your typical cafe experience. It resulted in Matthew and their mom having to hold Kendall down as their dad got chewed out by the (not surprisingly) angry owner of the establishment who puffed a cigarette and had a stronger Jersey accent than Danny Devito.

But while this whole hilarious yet embarrassing event played through her head, it hit her.

“COFFEE!” Kendall screamed, excited for figuring out another clue.

The same event ran through Matthew’s mind, and he suddenly got REALLY scared. And for good reason, as the events that unfolded on that afternoon, which I will NOT be describing so as to not burden your probably already stressed out mind from this disaster, were definitely something to be traumatized by.

“NO!” Matthew screamed. “No more coffee for you!”

“No, I mean the clue!” Kendall held up the clue. “It’s talking about the coffee machine! Coffee flows down into a vessel-the coffee cup-and is smelled by the nose, because usually, you drink it when you ‘look ill’; when you’re EXHAUSTED and need to wake up, so you can’t see the coffee-you can only smell and taste it!”

Matthew stopped panicking, realizing that his sister was right. He decided to simply say “OK, let’s head to the kitchen,” and walk out of the basement.

In the kitchen, filled with cabinets and smooth black counters and large windows, a black Keurig coffee machine sat on a counter near the back door, powered off and barely filled with water.

“It’s probably in the little thing where you put the K-Pod,” Matthew stated, opening said part of the machine. But it was empty. There wasn’t even a used pod in it, which was usually the case, as their parents tended to forget to throw those away.

Suddenly, as the two kids shared a confused glance, Matthew’s text tone went off. He checked his phone to find a message from their dad. “Make me a cup of coffee, I’m heading home, remember I like Dark Enchantment,” the text read, with a thumbs-up emoji at the end of the message.

“But what if the notecard gets destroyed?” Kendall remarked.

“It’s not in here, Kendall. I can’t think of it being in any other part of this machine. And even if it was, does this guy-or girl-really expect us to take apart our parents’ super expensive coffee machine-which, by the way, we DON’T know how to reassemble-just to find a piece of paper?”

“Wow. Rude. You probably just offended whoever made this notecard thing,” But inside, Kendall was crushed. She thought she had done it. She had done something smart, something to prove she could maybe, just MAYBE, amount to her brother. But she screwed up once again. Now she knew why everyone seemed to care about her brother more than she did. She wasn’t even worth it. She couldn’t even figure out a stupid scavenger hunt, for God’s sake! But she simply hung her head and removed the carafe from the Keurig.

She walked over to the sink and filled it with cold water. Meanwhile, Matthew opened the snack cabinet just above the coffee machine and rummaged through the small clear plastic box in the bottom left corner. He grabbed a dark blue pod that read, ‘Shoprite Dark Enchantment’. Turning on the machine, he heard the mechanical buzz and moan of the Keurig as it warmed up. After a minute or so that seemed to go on forever, the three buttons with mugs on them had a blue backlight shine on them. Matthew opened the part that held the K-Pod and placed the Dark Enchantment into the hole. He closed the lid, and the backlight started to flicker, indicating the machine was ready to start brewing. Kendall inserted the carafe into the side of the Keurig, put the lid on top, and grabbed a white mug. Matthew pressed the largest button, which was on the far right, and heard the machine moan some more. But what happened next was quite unexpected. Instead of pouring dark brown, hot liquid into the mug below it, a rolled-up note card slowly squeezed its way out of the tiny hole below the pod and into the mug. It landed with a PING as it sat at the bottom of the mug.

Without even thinking for a millisecond, Kendall grabbed the notecard so fast it looked like nothing had even happened. The coffee poured into the cup as expected, and all Matthew could do was sit wide-eyed at the machine. He then turned to Kendall, who gave him a smirk.

“TOLD YOU I was right!” Kendall said in a high-pitched, mocking tone.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You win,” Matthew giggled. “But how did that happen?! The notecard HAD to have been in the compartment where the pod is in order for that to work!”

“Don’t think about it, Matthew. Just be glad it worked,”

“Don’t think a-that’s my JOB, Kendall!” But even Matthew couldn’t keep a smile off his face. He then asked if he could read the card, and was given permission. The card read:

_How wonderful to give you joy_

_A child is not merely a toy_

_Now gather round, as I confess_

_The final clue, the final test:_

_There is no clue. Go in the attic. Go. NOW._

Matthew’s speech slowed as he read that last line. He was really confused. After getting so used to riddles, he certainly wasn’t expecting a plain old demand. Kendall, too, was confused.

“Well, uh...OK. If you say so, notecard,” Matthew continued on to the attic. Kendall, still unsure, followed.

All the while, the coffee cup, now filled with one large serving of Shoprite Dark Enchantment coffee, sat there, steaming and slowly cooling. The sweet liquid was unsure of the fate of the kids, but it knew its own fate. Somehow.

The creak of the entrance signaled the arrival of the children to the attic. Matthew and Kendall hesitantly glanced around the dark paradise of so many of their worst nightmares. Stories of ghosts and giant spiders and haunted relics had filled their nights when they had to sleep up here with terror. Nowadays, they weren’t scared anymore, but the never-ending darkness and dusty air still gave them shivers and horrifying nostalgia.

“I hate this place. I hate it so much,” Kendall said. Matthew had never agreed with her so much in his life.

Using his phone’s flashlight, Matthew vanquished any lingering demons of the past and present from the cursed room. The floorboards creaked with anxiety as the two slowly crept through their house’s very own harbinger of doom. Kendall sneezed and coughed, the dust making her allergies act up even more than they already were, now that it was spring.

At the end of the room was an item that neither of them had seen before: a locked chest. It was dark mahogany with a dark grey lock and a key of the same color laying on top of the chest.

Matthew, with all of his caution, picked up the key and, very slowly, fitted it into the lock and turned it. CLICK. 

The two kids pushed open the lid. Inside the chest was an envelope that looked like it had been sent to their house from a doctor’s office.

Matthew and Kendall may have been confused before, but that barely compared to how they were feeling now. All this time, they had been looking for a letter?! What the actual heck?!

But there was no time for questions. They needed answers.

Kendall ripped open the letter with no mercy. Inside was a neatly folded up letter on a sheet of copy paper. What was written on it was the worst possible thing:

_Dear Mr. & Mrs. Steinbeck, _

_I regret to inform you that I have made an unfortunate discovery. It is a part of my job to update records on my patients whenever they come in. Since you have recently given birth to your second child, Matthew Elliott, I had to update your record to include the details of this event. While doing this, I decided to go through your other reports. Given that I am your doctor, I am allowed to do so. While I was doing this, I came across the report that detailed the birth of your first child, Kendall Elizabeth. The odd thing was this: the name of the biological father on this report did not match the name of the biological father on the recent report. Naturally, I was confused, and proceeded to ask Nurse Patricia Ratters, whom Mrs. Steinbeck is very good friends with, if Mrs. Steinbeck had gone through a divorce between the births of her two children. I assumed that since Patricia was close to Juliana, she would know this. She told me that this had not happened, or at least she hadn’t been informed about it. Now, since you moved here and I became your doctor after Kendall was born, I had no way of knowing whether or not the husband Juliana had when Matthew was born was the same husband she had when Kendall was born. Nevertheless, I decided to look through the state’s public database in order to see if this event had been documented. It hadn’t. There was no mention of a divorce anywhere within the record. I assumed that maybe the divorce had taken place in the state Juliana lived in before moving here. I knew from conversations with born Patricia and Juliana herself that this was Indiana. So I moved to the Indiana state database and checked there. Again, nothing. Nothing in her previous record from her time in Indiana was there any mention of a divorce. After some thought, I eventually came to the conclusion that either child is most likely not the biological child of Mr. Steinbeck. Based on the knowledge I have and some basic logic, I am going to assume that this child is Matthew. I could be wrong, of course, but for the sake of this letter, I must make some formal statement. Now, forgive me for jumping to conclusions, but based on all that I have said, I can only assume that Mrs. Steinbeck must have had, or is still having, an affair with another man. If this is not the case, I once again apologize for assuming something that simply isn’t true, even if it is based on logical reasoning. But if it is indeed the case, then shame on you, Mrs. Steinbeck. You have broken not just the heart of your current husband, not just my trust in you, not just a basic moral of society, but one of the Ten Commandments. One of the ten basic laws God has given all of humanity to follow. And I know for a fact that you are a follower of Christianity, so there is no doubt that you are aware of this. ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’. I have talked with my colleagues and my superiors, and we believe that it is a proper act to ban you from ever asking for our services for the rest of your life. Not your husband or children, but you. You disgust me, Mrs. Steinbeck. And you will surely disgust your husband when he finds out about this._

_Good riddance, Dr. Jason L. Wheatley, M.D., P.H.D._

By the time Kendall had finished reading this, her entire face was red. Tears were streaming down her face. Her mind was pretty much offline at this point, and her throat hurt so much she thought she was suffocating.

But Matthew was even worse. Not only was he bawling like a little kid, his mind was even more broken. He wasn’t related to Kendall? He wasn’t really a biological part of this family? And he had never been told about it? But he had just started getting over his grudges with Kendall, and they were friends, and they had solved the clues, and-

Then it hit him. This was it. This was what the whole hunt was about. The person behind this was trying to tell them about this. He now started believing it was Dr. Wheatley who had set this whole thing up. He wanted them to know, so he led them on a scavenger hunt in order to find out the truth.

About an hour later, everything got even crazier.

“WHAT?!” Mr. Steinbeck yelled so loud it may have broken the sound barrier. Mrs. Steinbeck was trying to curl up into a ball so small she could just stop existing. Both of them were crying. Matthew and Kendall backed away as their dad started yelling things I can’t say, first because it’s really...how do I put this...COLORFUL, and second, because it’s so long I would be here for way too long just writing a quarter of what he said.

But eventually, the rant longer than a speech at a college graduation ended, and Juliana was completely broken. She couldn’t even mutter a word, because Mr. Steinbeck yelled, “GET OUT! NOW!”. Well, that’s excluding the several colorful things he added to his demand.

Juliana, not wanting to suffer another slap on her skull, ran out of the house, all the while sobbing with her head in her hands. Kendall shut the door and watched as her mother jumped in her car and drove off, not even bothering to get her possessions, other than what was in her purse.

Of course, it took Mr. Steinbeck quite a while to fully decompress and get all those colorful words out of his system. But after about an hour of smashing anything that even remotely reminded him of Juliana, Mr. Steinbeck sat down and completely lost it.

Matthew and Kendall hugged their dad and gave him tissues and nice words. Eventually, their dad sniffed and said, in a weak voice, “What am I going to do now?”

Well, I’ll tell you what.

After a long explanation of the scavenger hunt and after many pets given to Doug-yes, I didn’t forget about him, he still exists-Mr. Steinbeck, along with his children, cleaned up the mess and sold all of Juliana’s items she had left behind. 

The next few months were very difficult on the Steinbecks. Several counseling sessions and talks with Dr. Wheatley filled up the majority of their time. Matthew and Kendall tried to keep up with their schoolwork-the school didn’t count the incident as a good enough excuse for the kids to be absent from school-but it was hard. Their friends were proving themselves to be either true blue, supportive friends, or not really friends at all. There wasn’t really a third option.

But both the lessons learned during the scavenger hunt and the newfound strength and courage coming from this challenge was shaping their mindset and their outlook on life, not to mention their actual lives. Things are changing for the kids, but one thing will stay absolutely certain: they were not expecting that box to hold such an important secret, but they thank God and the-as of now-anonymous creator every day for helping them figure it out.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Kudos, bookmarks, and comments about what you liked are GREATLY appreciated!


End file.
